![]() Bic introduced the first totally disposable razors in the sixties as well, which made shaving even more convenient. ![]() These newer blades were tougher to hone, but they lasted much longer and didn't rust. The Real Arms Race Started in the 1960sĪfter years of losing market share to their electric competition, Gillette finally hit upon a winning innovation in 1960 when it introduced stainless steel blades. In fact, Schick supposedly thought that if a man shaved often enough, he could lengthen his life to 120 years. Part of the reason he went into the shaving business was that he really, really believed in the benefits of shaving. Like King Camp Gillette, Jacob Schick was a bit of an odd duck. Their hair had been highly prized for wet shaving brushes because it retained water so well, so more than a few badgers were spared a shearing as America started plugging in their electric Schicks. The real winners in this transition from wet shaving with soap and a brush to electric razors were badgers. Schick razors took store shelves by storm in 1931, and they quickly sold millions of units. ![]() (One failed model from 1910 ran on clockwork.) In 1928 a retired Army colonel named Jacob Schick patented an electric razor he had designed, and the world finally had a winner. People have been patenting and trying to market electric razors since 1900, but at first they met with little success. Gillette even offered Teddy Roosevelt $1 million to serve as president of this planned utopia in 1910, but Roosevelt declined. He became a strong proponent of utopian socialism later in his life and planned a community in Arizona in which engineers would rationally orchestrate all activity. Interestingly, Gillette sold the razors at a loss, but he more than made up for it by selling the blades at a huge profit.Īlthough Gillette's invention came from his notion that he should invent something people bought, threw away, and then repurchased, he wasn't your typical capitalist. By 1906 Gillette's design was moving 300,000 units a year. MIT professor William Nickerson joined up with Gillette to figure out a way to stamp the blades out of sheets of high-carbon steel, and by 1903 they had their first batch of razors ready to take on America's beards. It took another six years for Gillette to find someone who could actually make the disposable blades. The idea was great, but there was a problem: the blades weren't easy to make. Julius Caesar supposedly preferred to have his beard plucked out with tweezers, although other Roman men used razors or rubbed the beards from their faces using pumice stones. Alexander's subjects were often shaved using a novacila, a block of iron with one edge sharpened, which sounds like a great way to shred your face. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encouraged his men to shave so enemies couldn't grab their beards during melees. Still other cultures sharpened volcanic obsidian glass and used those.Īnother story posits that the Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus introduced the razor to his people in the 6th century BC, but shaving didn't really catch on with Romans for another hundred years or so. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, circular solid gold or copper razors can be found as far back as the 4th millennium BC in some Egyptian tombs. It's not clear when these crude implements gave way to what we now think of as razors. Records drawn on cave walls show prehistoric people shaving with clamshells, flint knives, and even shark teeth. In the days before razors, you could either sport a hirsute look or get creative. Let's take a look at the history of shaving. It hasn't always been quite so easy, though. Most of us pick up a razor at least every couple of days, and although shaving's a little tedious, it's not too much of a hassle.
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